European Union - New Zealand Business Summit 2025

The NZEBC partners with the EU Delegation to NZ in the first EU-NZ Business Summit

On October 22-24 the EU-NZ Business Summit was held in Auckland. The idea was to bring together  400 delegates from NZ, Europe, Australia and other places, to consider how best to promote trade growth between EU and New Zealand. Attendance was by invitation and some 480 people attended, which was already a mark of success. The main event was on Friday 24 October with some pre-events held during the two preceding days. NZ was represented by the Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, and the Minister for Trade, Todd McClay, who addressed the conference and answered questions.

Other key speakers attending the conference included Maros Sefcovic, EU Commissioner for trade and economic security. Many EU ambassadors in Wellington participated as well as EU Ambassadors located in Canberra who also cover New Zealand. From the business side there was representation from a large number of EU companies trading with NZ and many NZ companies exporting to the EU. The host and arranger of the summit was H.E. Ambassador Lawrence Meredith, the EU Ambassador accredited to New Zealand. 

It was a full day of interesting presentations and Q&A sessions and a great intermingling of companies with each other and with officials from Europe and New Zealand. Each country had an opportunity to present its priorities. With this year’s summit creating a space to highlight the economies of Central and Eastern Europe, delegations from this region in particular used the opportunity to showcase and explore areas for cooperation. NZEBC was represented by its president, Peter Kiely, Hon. Consul General for Slovakia in Auckland, together with the board of NZEBC. NZEBC also arranged a business breakfast for 60 guests the morning before the summit with a good mix of major corporates and ambassadors plus trade commissioners from several countries. France also ran a well-attended event on carbon reduction on October 23, and Ireland and Spain also had special programmes that day.

New Zealand has benefitted greatly from the now one year-old free trade agreement with the EU in so far as exports were up by more than 20% whereas EU exports were not much impacted. The reality is that the EU has a significant trade surplus with NZ so an increase in NZ trade reduces that deficit to some degree.

The summit was very well planned and executed with a full programme of interesting presentations, interviews and discussions. Everyone came away with a keenness to continue the success of trade between the two partners. It was emphasized that NZEU FTA passed through EU approvals with higher acclaim that any earlier FTA and the impact was extraordinary. Implementing a new trade agreement is work-in-progress and setting a high level of ambition will have a great impact on capturing full value for both parties.

Photos courtesy of EU Delegation to New Zealand.